HOUSTON — Exxon Mobil is facing a claim that it implemented an employee ranking system and took other efforts to eliminate older employees.
Jose Simonetty filed a complaint May 17 in Harris County District Court against Exxon Mobil Corporation alleging age discrimination.
According to his complaint, Simonetty began working for Exxon Mobil 30 years ago and on July 9, 2020, at age 62, he was terminated. He alleges that throughout his time at Exxon Mobil, he received awards and commendations for his performance and that once he turned 58 years old, he noticed "a rapid, unsubstantiated decline in his performance ranking."
Simonetty claims that Exxon placed employees in this age group in performance evaluation programs that were "essentially the last step for older employees" and "very few, if any, survive" the programs to get their employment status to the company's "acceptive level."
Simonetty further claims Exxon works to drive out employees age 60 and over in order for younger employees to advance. Specifically, Simonetty alleges that he was given a bogus safety violation to bring down his employment ranking and that Exxon hired a "substantially younger" worker for him to train as part of a plan to replace him with the younger worker.
Simonetty seeks monetary relief of more than $1 million, interest, trial by jury and all other just relief. He is represented by Gregg Rosenberg of Rosenberg Sprovach in Houston.
Harris County District Court case number 2021-29437